Community Council Issue 2 February 2011

Play Park Celebration Day Community Bulb Plant Although there are still a number of outstanding issues, the flood defence work is hopefully coming to an end and consideration has been given to replacing some of the plantation that was destroyed during this project. Consultations, facilitated by Firrhill Community Council, were held with Carillion to discuss how, what and where it was best to replace some of the planting and that work is being progressed. We now have an Orchard at the start of Firrhill Drive and three fir trees; although one is to be replaced as it has not survived the snow! Bulb planting was supposed to be done at the end of November but we all know what came instead! Undaunted by the arctic conditions in January, a brave group of local people and A4E supervisor Iain Boettcher and his team planted 7000 mixed bulbs of daffodils, bluebells, snowdrops and tulips, between the Lochan and the Orchard. Official Opening of Mains Playgrounds & We look forward to seeing the fruits of their labour and Community Planting hope that it inspires you to get involved with upcoming Monday 22nd November 2010 1.30p.m environmental events, the first of which is to invite you Two new exciting play areas have been added to to an Environmental Get Together on Thursday 24th

Colinton Mains Park. A children’s play area for 3 to 12 March, 2p.m in Oxgangs Neighbourhood Centre 71 year olds and a separate area for local teenagers to Firrhill Drive have as a place of their own, to meet and throw or kick a ball about.

Children from St Mark’s R C Primary Eco Committee, Oxgangs Primary along with local people from the Lochan Residents Association, Oxgangs Care, Firrhill Community Council and our local Councilor Eric Barry were on hand to celebrate the opening of the play areas and plant some 5000 Daffodils that will provide an annual display of colour to the Park. The children’s play area was funded by The City of Council, Services for Communities, Parks and Greenspace, and Waste Recycling Environmental Limited (WREN). The teenage play area was installed by Dunedin Canmore Housing Association. Hot drinks and biscuits were supplied by Oxgangs Neighbourhood Centre.

Issue dates- February, May, October 2011 You can now find us on Facebook. Tea break Disclaimer-

Firrhill Community Council 1 Website Upgrade Firrhill Community Council are seeking to establish and maintain an economic communications strategy with the community it serves, the local council (CEC), its councillors and officers, and other relevant bodies in order to pursue its purpose and support its objectives, as well as responding to issues facing the community, both known and emerging. An essential tool in the processing of that strategy is the Community Council’s website. Through the website, Firrhill Community Council hope to keep those, who live and work within its area, informed of activities and events taking place within its locality and of proposed works and developments that may affect the area in which they live or do business. To meet these aspirations the website has been designed to provide the following information and communication pages: A ‘Home’ page to introduce the Council, provide information on when we meet and contacts details for our Chairperson and Secretary. Consultations and other items of interest will be promoted on this page. The ‘About Us’ and ‘About the Area’ pages provide information on our statutory purpose and membership and build up a profile of the area that we represent. One of our aims will be to develop a historical profile of Colinton Mains, Firrhill and Oxgangs, so if any historian out there is interested in contributing to this – feel free to send in information or data. The ‘News’ and ‘Calendar’ pages are for the purpose of posting new information that may be of interest to those who live in the community or is relevant to their welfare. If you have any information that you consider meets those criteria, please let us know and we will insert the information here. The ‘Minutes and Documents’ page is our depository for those documents which provide a record of our meetings and of the business papers discussed at those meetings and which we are required to make available to the community. The ‘Guestbook’ page facilitates the Community Council requirement to “ascertain the views of the community which it represents” and provides a simple method of obtaining feedback from the community, whether in response to a consultation or on a matter of interest to the individual. Basically it is for use where the individual is not looking for a service but simply expressing an opinion, possibly in response to information on the website or some other local matter. The sender does not need to identify themselves (although it may be helpful to the Council if they did). Messages will be checked before they are displayed on the website to ensure they meet acceptable standards for publication. The ‘Enquiries’ page also facilitates communication with the community, however, it is for use when people are making an enquiry and therefore looking for a response. They need to provide some contact information in order that we can respond to them directly. That completes our tour of the website and we hope it will be of some interest to you and you will visit it regularly at the address below. If you have ideas or opinions in regard to the design of the website or on the information held, please let us know. The website’s function is important to us and your feedback will help us to continue to improve on this and attract visitors to the site. http://www.firrhillcommunitycouncil.btck.co.uk/

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News in Brief Snow of 2010 Sports Pavilion Update Can you tell where these pictures were taken As you may have noticed work has not yet started on the Sports Pavilion in Colinton Mains Park. It is estimated that work will commence in May and completed in August 2011, we will provide an update in the next issue of the newsletter. Early Intervention Family Support Service The Family Early Intervention Support Project is a new service provided by CHAI. The team consists of 3 staff and cover the Oxgangs areas. We provide support and a range of services to families living in the , Oxgangs and surrounding areas. We can support families in areas such as housing related and tenancy support. For more informaiton or to make enquires regarding a referral contact us on the numbers below: 0131 441 5985 (Oxgangs) ask for Lucy 0131 441 2100 () ask for Ross or Sharon Get on Launch 10am – 12noon Thursday 3 March at Pentland Community Centre We are hosting a launch of the Get On Information Point and its advantages to the area, including a networking meeting for local services and members of the Get On network. This will also provide a networking opportunity bringing together partners from the Edinburgh area. A marketplace will be available to display information. We hope you can come along and look forward to welcoming you at the launch. The Get On Bus will be ready to welcome you and your group members/users on board Contact Sue Cameron, Pentland Community Centre [email protected] for more details

Local Health Action Group To identify the health needs of people in Oxgangs/Firrhill, a new group has been set up called the ‘Local Health Action Group’ This group is made up of local people and service providers in an attempt to gather information about what services there are in the area ; raise awareness of these and explore opportunities for agencies to work together to improve knowledge of and access to these services. The next meeting will be held on Monday 28th February, 9.30 a.m in Oxgangs Care Offices, Firrhill Neuk.

Health Event- In Oxgangs Neighbourhood Centre- Friday 11th March 2010, 12noon- 4p.m. Come along and have fun on the Wi, get information on various health issues. The Café will be open for lunch and transport can be booked in advance

Firrhill Community Council 3 Meetings Supporting Parents and Carers in

Neighbourhood Partnership next public meeting- South West, SPACE Church, Tuesday 22nd February, 7p.m Launch 26 January 2011 Firrhill Community Council next public meeting- (to offer parents and carers support, advice and Colinton Mains Bowling Club, Monday 28th February information ) ONC Management next meeting To launch this multi agency approach an event was held Pentland CC Management - Wednesday 2nd March. at Pentland Community Centre.

60 representatives attended the event from NHS Lothian;

Consultations Children and Families including staff from Schools,

Community Learning and Development, Libraries, the A Sense of Belonging: Joint Mental Health Army Welfare Service, Lothian Borders Police and the and Wellbeing Strategy 2011-2016 Voluntary sector. The event was aimed at updating and NHS Lothian is consulting on this draft strategy which informing staff on the development of the SPACE model sets out the vision to improve mental health and in the SW; exchanging information on training and wellbeing across Lothian over the next 5 years. It has resources; identifying gaps for developing parent been drawn up in consultation with many groups from support. Speakers from the GIRFEC team and Family NHS Lothian, Local Authorities, voluntary sector Community Support set the context for discussion. The organisations together with service users and carers. day provided a good opportunity for information sharing, The strategy looks at all stages of life. NHS Lothian discussion and networking. would welcome your views on this draft document, Parent Information Points will be established by March which will inform the final strategy. The full strategy 2011 within Oxgangs, and Libraries. document, the summary document and the online survey are on NHS Lothian website. If you would like a copy posted to you please phone 0131 465 5545. The Oxgangs Library 20thHappy Birthday consultation closes on 4 March 2011. A rather belated 20th Birthday celebration, which was actually on the 29th November 2010, my how the time The City of Edinburgh Council has produced a has flown. This event had to be rescheduled to Friday 4th draft five-year strategy for the way it plans, buys and February 2011, 2-4pm due to the Arctic conditions we delivers care and support services. Commissioning had to endure last year, but better late than never. Firrhill Strategy. Please note that the consultation on the draft Community Council provided the prizes for the Poetry Commissioning Strategy and the draft Commissioning Competition, ‘A sense of home...' which helped celebrate

Plan for Adult Services has been extended until the launch of the "Community Connections" hub, plus

Friday 4 March 2011 to give all organisations and promote the new "Parent Information Point". It was individuals the opportunity to have a say. See the great to see the library buzzing with people of all ages, website for further information and how you can send and a great sign that books and libraries are still very in your views online. You can also request a printed much alive and kicking. Contact Oxgangs Library on 529 copy of the strategy documents and feedback form by 5549 or [email protected] for more contacting 0131 553 8314. details. Useful Contacts – Firrhill Community Council Directory It is hoped you find these contacts useful and by the end of the year you should have a comprehensive list of local contacts Oxgangs Care, 0131 445 3332 Lunch club, Sitter Service, Befriending Service, Sure Start and various older peoples groups Age Concern, 08451259732 Minor Injuries Clinic, 0131 537 1330 at the Western General Hospital Care & Repair Edinburgh, 0131 220 7630 Colinton Mains Bowling Club, 0131 477 4400 221 Oxgangs Rd North: Peggy Wright (Club Secy) Pentland Community Centre, Sagi Iluza , 0131 445-2871 Indoor Bowls, Seated Exercise, Senior Citizen Activity Group, Art Club, Computer Club and many more Oxgangs Neighbourhood Centre, John Spence, 0131 441-7558 Seated Exercise, Bingo, Art Club, Computer classes, Café and many more.

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